Samsung new patent hint bendable Phone

A recent patent application from Samsung shows a new smartphone with a foldable design. The patent was filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and was first spotted by Dutch website GalaxyClub. Samsung’s  patent also gives us a first glimpse at the design of the phone they are trying to create. Back in 2015, Samsung had announced that it was working on a bendable phone design,which a leak on Weibo claimed was dubbed as Project Valley.
The patent application shows clear renders of the foldable design, which when folded reminds us of a Microsoft Surface Book hinge. The patent shows the display of the phone to runs down the entire length of the thin but tall design, which can be folded right down the middle.
In June this year, Bloomberg had reported that Samsung was working on two new smartphones, which will have a bendable display. Both devices will come with an OLED display, and an early 2017 launch is being planned, claimed the report.
A recent report also said Apple was granted a patent for a foldable smartphone design. Unlike the Samsung device, Apple’s patent hints at a device that will fold like a book. The inner workings of Apple’s patent talks about flexible printed circuits, flexible display substrates and flexible touch sensor substrates.
Samsung has also been testing the smartphone market with a dual-display flip smartphone design, and has recently launched the W2017. The dual-display phone features two 4.2-inch Super AMOLED displays with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution and comes with the latest Snapdragon 821 processor. Samsung W2017 is the successor to the W2016 that carried a similar flip design.

GoPro recall Karma Drone

The company announced it was recalling around 2,500 Karma drones. A  number of the drones lost power during operation. Customers can return the item to its place of purchase for a full refund.
Safety is our top priority, GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman said. "We are working in close coordination with both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Aviation Administration. "We are very sorry to have inconvenienced our customers and we are taking every step to make the return and refund process as easy as possible."bFor the moment, GoPro is not offering any replacement drones, which they've been selling since Oct 23.
The company said they will only resume shipping once "the issue is resolved. "The recall comes at a bad time for the public camera and drone company, which just took a big hit in its third-quarter earnings.
GoPro lost a whopping $84 million over the past three months, at the time, although Karma drone sales were not included in the report.

Intel unveil Shooting Star Drone

Intel has announced its new ‘Shooting Star’ aerial drone that isn’t meant for aerial photography or aerial-sensing, but tailor-made for light shows. Intel’s new quad-copter aims too redefine entertainment and new possibilities with light shows in the night sky.
Recently, we put the fleet of Intel Shooting Star drones to the test in Germany and we were able to achieve what no one else has done before. We set a new Guinness World Record for having The Most UAVs Airborne Simultaneously with 500 Intel Shooting Star drones lighting up the night sky. We outdid our own previous record of 100 drones in-flight simultaneously in less than a year,” said Intel in a press release.
The Shooting Star is Intel’s first venture into the entertainment light show business. The company says that the drone is designed keeping in mind creativity and safety. The Shooting Star features a light-weight structure and has ‘virtually limitless colour combinations.’ Intel has asked for a waiver from US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly the drones at night, to demonstrate the capability of the drone cluster.
Intel just last month unveiled its first consumer drone, the Yuneec Typhoon H –featuring the company’s Real Sense technology. The company also has a drone for commercial use, called the Falcon 8+. Falcon 8+ was introduced in North American markets in October, and comes with ‘complete flight system redundancies built-in’.
The US tech giant has recently acquired MAVinci GmbH, a drone company based in Germany that comes with what Intel calls the “best-in-class” flight panning software.

Samsung Galaxy S8 to get AI Assistant

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it would launch an artificial intelligence digital assistant service for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone, seeking to rebound from the Galaxy Note 7’s collapse and differentiate its devices. The world’s top smartphone maker in October announced the acquisition of Viv Labs Inc, a firm run by a co-creator of Apple Inc’s Siri voice assistant programme. Samsung plans to integrate the San Jose-based company’s AI platform, called Viv, into the Galaxy smartphones and expand voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices. Samsung is counting on the Galaxy S8 to help revive smartphone momentum after the discontinuation of fire-prone Galaxy Note 7s, which will hit its profit by $5.4 billion over three quarters through the first quarter of 2017.
Investors and analysts say the Galaxy S8 must be a strong device in order for Samsung to win back customers and revive earnings momentum.
Samsung did not comment on what types of services would be offered through the AI assistant that will be launched on the Galaxy S8, which is expected to go on sale early next year. It said the AI assistant would allow customers to use third-party service seamlessly. “Developers can attach and upload services to our agent,” said Samsung Executive Vice President Rhee In-jong during a briefing, referring to its AI assistant. “Even if Samsung doesn’t do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease.
Report Technology firms are locked in an increasingly heated race to make AI good enough to let consumers interact with their devices more naturally, especially via voice. Alphabet Inc’s Google is widely considered to be the leader in AI, but others including Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft Corp have launched their own offerings including voice-powered digital assistants.

Lenovo Phab goes on Sale

Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, company’s first official Project Tango smartphone has finally being made available. The Phab 2 Pro was slated to start shipping in August in the US and go on sale in September, but the availability was delayed to October. It was then further delayed to November. Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is now finally listed on the company’s site for $499 (Rs 33,350 approx) in Gunmetal Grey colour option. The smartphone was first announced in June. Lenovo Phab 2 Pro’s camera has an AR mode that brings augmented reality(AR) to smartphones, including gaming, navigation and other utilities.
Once The AR mode in Phab 2 Pro is switched on, it allows you to choose from characters like a cat, a dog, a dragon, etc. Tap on one of these characters, and they appear on the camera app, superimposed on the real world settings around you. Plus, you can do a number of things with the characters you pick. For instance, there’s a laser for the cat and it will chase it around.
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro comes with real world applications such as Lowe’s Home Improvement, Phantogeist, Raise and Woorld. With Lowe’s Home Improvement, users can find products they want, and see how they look in context before buying. Raise allows users to pick a pet from the 3D library and take him wherever they go. Users can train their puppy, and share photos on social media as well.
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro has a 6.4-inch 2K display and runs Qualcomm 652 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. There’s a 16MP rear camera with special depth-sensing unit, along with multiple camera sensors. The front camera is 8MP. The Phab 2 Pro packs a 4,050 mAh battery and a fingerprint scanner. It is capable of 3D projections and figure out space, which are all new experiences on a smartphone.

Samsung Gear S3 costly than Apple watch

Samsung's new Gear S3 smartwatch will launch on Nov. 18 in the U.S. starting at $349.99 for the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi model — more than an entry-level Apple Watch. Pre-orders start on Nov. 6.
Consumers can pick one up from Samsung.com, Best Buy, Amazon, Macy's. Samsung announced the smartwatch in August, and it'll be available in two models: a regular "Classic" and slightly more rugged "Frontier" edition. They're Samsung's first smartwatches to feature built-in LTE and GPS. The Gear S3 also supports Samsung Pay using MST technology — the same contactless payment technology used by Samsung's flagship S7 and S7 Edge phones.
The smartwatch's large 46mm (diameter) case is a departure from the more reasonably-sized 32mm  Gear S2 and even 38mm and 42mm Apple Watch. The larger case does mean room for the LTE, GPS and a larger battery, which is reportedly good for three to four days on a single charge. Size aside, the Gear S3, last I checked, looks like a solid smartwatch running Tizen and connecting to Samsung smartphones. Not to mention it has military-grade durability with an IP68 rating for resistance to water, dust and sand.

Samsung Galaxy S8 to feature bezel-less display

According to a report by The Investor, Samsung will be bringing an edge-to-edge or a bezel-less display that will be based on OLED technology. Park Won-sang, a principal engineer at Samsung’s display making unit has hinted that the phone will be coming with a 90 per cent display area ratio. In comparison, the average ratio of display to body ratios in modern day smartphone stands at 80 per cent.
Smartphone manufacturers are already playing around with a edge-to-edge and no bezel displays, which includes Xiaomi that recently unveiled its concept smartphone – the Mi Mix.
The phone has been designed by Philippe Starck, a French designer – uses seamless connectors to fuse the phone’s body without the need to use external adhesives. Mi Mix will be featuring a 6.4-inch edge-to-edge display, which the company says will have a 91.3 per cent screen-to-body ratio and a custom 17:9 aspect ratio. Since there is no bezel on top of the phone, the front camera has been moved to the bottom of the device.
Samsung Galaxy S8 will reportedly feature a 5.1-inch 2K super AMOLED display, with the larger version sporting a 5.5-inch 4K display. The phone is likely to be powered by the company’s upcoming Exynos 8895 processor, and likely the Snapdragon 830. A dual-rear camera setup is also expected with the ‘Edge’ version of the Galaxy S8.

Sony release two new PS4 Control

Sony has recently announced two licensed pro controllers that will be official for the PlayStation 4 console – namely the Nacon Revolution and the Razer Raiju. This the company claims is to give its players more controller choices to choose.“Through close collaboration we’ve been able to help optimise each controller for PS4 – incorporating innovative Dual shock4 controls and ensuring gamers can enjoy a plug & play experience with any model of PS4,” said PlayStation in a blog.

Razer Raiju
The Razer Raiju as the company says is ‘designed for conquering professional eSports tournaments.’ This controller (according to the blog) comes with advanced ergonomics and controller customisation for sports games. Razer Raiju controller features include-– Built-in control panel on the front of the controller– Trigger-stop switches and hair trigger mode for ultra-fast trigger responses– Two custom profiles which you can instantly switch between and modify– 3.5mm headset jack and dedicated headset volume and mic mute controls– Detachable analog stick rubber caps which provide extra grip during intense gaming sessions.
The controller will be compatible with all PlayStation 4 consoles using a 3m USB detachable cable.

Nacon Revolution
The Nacon Revolution has also been designed keeping eSport games in mind, and promises ‘to meet a wide range of gameplay needs’. The controller includes:– 46° amplitude dual analogue sticks, enhanced with innovative firmware for advanced eSports accuracy   and reach– Four extra shortcut buttons– Eight-way directional pad– Four custom profiles – all configurable via the companion PC application, enabling players to: re-map      buttons, assign macros to the four shortcut controls and adjust analog and trigger sensitivity– Two internal compartments with six additional weights – for a tailored balance and feel.
The Nacon Revolution will also be compatible with all PS4 systems using a 3m-long secure connection detachable USB cable.

Google Glass make learning Morse code easier

Google Glass can make learning Morse code much easier as researchers have developed a system that teaches the code within four hours using a series of vibrations felt near the ear. Morse code is a method of transmitting text information in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short light or sound signals. Participants wearing Google Glass learned it without paying attention to the signals — they played games while feeling the taps and hearing the corresponding letters. After those few hours, they were 94 per cent accurate keying a sentence that included every letter of the alphabet and 98 per cent accurate writing codes for every letter, the researchers said.
“Does this new study mean that people will rush out to learn Morse code? Probably not,” said lead researcher Thad Starner, Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology . “It shows that PHL (passive haptic learning) lowers the barrier to learn text-entry methods — something we need for smartwatches and any text-entry that doesn’t require you to look at your device or keyboard,” Starner said in a Georgia Tech statement. This is the latest chapter of passive haptic learning studies at Georgia Tech. The same method — using vibrations while participants aren’t paying attention — has taught people braille, how to play the piano and improved hand sensation for those with partial spinal cord injury.
In the current study, the team decided to use Glass because it has both a built-in speaker and tapper (Glass’s bone-conduction transducer). In the study, participants played a game while feeling vibration taps between their temple and ear. The taps represented the dots and dashes of Morse code and passively “taught” users through their tactile senses — even while they were distracted by the game. The taps were created when researchers sent a very low-frequency signal to Glass’s speaker system. Because it was played very slowly, the sound was felt as a vibration. Half of the participants in the study felt the vibration taps and a voice prompt for each corresponding letter.
The other half — the control group — felt no taps to help them learn. Participants were tested throughout the study on their knowledge of Morse code and their ability to type it.
After less than four hours of feeling every letter, everyone was challenged to type the alphabet in Morse code in a final test.

First phone with Google Tango start shipping

Lenovo announced that its Phab 2 Pro would be the first phone to ship with Google Tango. And now, following early estimates of a November release window after a delay from the original summer date, we know exactly when that day will be: November 1st.
The Phab 2 Pro immediately stands out thanks to the extra-large depth-sensing Google Tango camera on the back of the device that allows the phone to map out physical spaces,track its position in a room, and follow objects. Getting down to the numbers, the Phab 2 Pro will cost $499 unlocked, which, in addition to the Tango sensor gets you a 6.4-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 652 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 4,000mAh battery.
The announcement of the Phab 2 Pro’s release date comes in a slightly strange manner — in the form of a small notification on Lenovo’s Tango-less Phab 2 page — so there’s still not a lot of information of where you’ll be able to buy the Phab 2 Pro.

Google Cast now Google Home

Google is gearing up for the release of Google Home in early November by updating the Google Cast app with a new design and a new name: "Google Home."This marks, somewhat confusingly, the third name for Google’s companion application for controlling Google-branded connected devices, following the original"Chromecast" and "Google Cast" names.
And while the consolidated branding is sure to be helpful going forward, as the Google Home app now serves as a one-stop shop to manage all your Google Home and Chromecast devices, it’s easy to see that it could be a bit confusing for customers who are familiar with the old product names.
Along with the new moniker, Google has updated the app with "Watch" and "Discover" tabs, making it easier to find new suggested content to watch on your Chromecast, along with a library of applications that support the device.